Strom Thurmond

Senator and former Governor of South Carolina. Ran for President in 1948 as a Dixiecrat. That year, the States Rights Democratic Party issued their nine-point platform; these were points four through six:

We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights.

We oppose and condemn the action of the Democratic Convention in sponsoring a civil rights program calling for the elimination of segregation, social equality by Federal fiat, regulations of private employment practices, voting and local law enforcement.

We affirm that the effective enforcement of such a program would be utterly destructive to the social, economic and political life of the Southern people, and of other localities in which there may be differences in race, creed or national origin in appreciable numbers.

Campaign speech: "And I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theatres, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches."

1948

"All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the nigger into our homes, our schools, our churches."

Nov 1948

Stom Thurmond carries four states (Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama) in his Dixiecrat Presidential bid, receiving 39 electoral votes.

1954

Elected to United States Senate, as the only succesful write-in candidate in history.

Becomes a 33rd degree Mason: "He is proud of his membership in Masonry and the Scottish Rite and has on many occasions evidenced his genuine interest in and support of their great principles."

11 Oct 1972

Full-page headline for The Edgefield Advertiser: "SEN. THURMOND IS UNPRINCIPLED - WITH COLORED OFFSPRING - WHILE PARADING AS A DEVOUT SEGREGATIONIST."

5 Dec 2002

One hundredth birthday. Colleague Trent Lott said on the occasion: "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

20 Dec 2002

Trent Lott's remarks at Strom's hundredth birthday bash force him to resign as Senate Majority Leader. In the time between the issuance of his unfortunate remarks and his resignation, Lott said and did a number of things out of character for him: endorsing affirmative action, appearing on Black Entertainment Television. But no matter how far he went, Lott couldn't snow anyone into thinking he wasn't still a racist.

3 Jan 2003

Strom Thurmond officially retires from U.S. Senate.

26 Jun 2003

Strom Thurmond dies.

14 Dec 2003

Essie Mae Washington-Williams, 78, announces to the press that she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of Strom Thurmond. Williams had been mentioned on and off for decades as Thurmond's possible daughter, although she and the senator officially denied it. William's mother was a maid in the Thurmond family household, and had her at the age of sixteen. (Daddy Strom would have been in his early 20's.)